Sausage, Swiss Chard and Potato Soup

This soup is hefty enough to provide a full meal in a bowl. You can use any kind of sausage you like and your choice, whether it is mild or spicy or perhaps made with garlic or fennel, will be a big factor in flavor.

 

This recipe also presents a template for making soup where you can change the ingredients to suit your whim and invent your own. You can add chopped celery and carrots along with the onions, or use leeks instead of onions. You may want to add additional spices to complement the sausages, such as thyme, rosemary or fennel. For the greens, Swiss chard comes in colorful varieties with stems of green, red, and neon rainbow, but you can also use spinach or kale. Instead of potatoes you can add white beans such as cannellini or a small shape of pasta, perhaps ditali, fusilli or even tortellini. You’ll need a 15 ounce can of beans, rinsed well and drained or about ⅓ pound of pasta, more or less depending upon the shape, and if adding beans or pasta you would omit the milk or cream.

 

Another embellishment to this recipe would be the addition of 2 ounces of chopped bacon or its Italian counterpart pancetta. Brown it in the olive oil before you add the onion and garlic. And finally, you can omit all of the meat products and even the milk and cream for those who don’t eat meat or dairy.

 

SERVES 4

 

Ingredients: 

8 ounces of sausage, cut into ¼ inch slices

1 tablespoons olive oil

¼ cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

 

6 cups water

2 chicken bouillon cubes

2 medium potatoes, scrubbed and cut into ¼ inch slices

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

4 cups greens, thick stems removed and leaves sliced in thin shreds

 

6 tablespoons milk or cream, or a combination of the two; if you use 4 tablespoons milk plus 2 tablespoons cream you won’t be overloading it with fat but will still have a rich soup

 

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Instructions: 

▪ Heat the olive oil in a large pot on medium heat and brown both sides of the sausage slices. You’ll do this even if the sausage is precooked, and if it is raw to begin with make sure you cook it thoroughly. Remove the sausage, drain on paper towels and set aside.

 

▪ Pour off all but about a tablespoon of fat from the pot, reduce the heat to low and add the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes until it is soft but not browned.

 

▪ Add the water, bouillon cubes and potatoes, and add back the sausage. Add salt and pepper to taste.

 

▪ Increase the heat to bring the soup to a simmer and cook about 15 minutes, until you can easily piece the potato with a fork.

 

▪ Add the greens and continue to cook for about 5 minutes, until they are wilted.

 

▪ Stir in the milk or cream and heat until hot enough to serve.